20060409

So much to say, but no time, no time

Evening all. As I have repeatedly told you, yet still you don't listen, I'll be travelling from Monday, and hence have too much to get done before then to waste my time talking to you. I did have a lot of things stacked up to mention, but I can't be bothered to say these in any detail, so I shall make brief notes and allow you to fill in the rest:

* The White House, like most US homes, is surprisingly open in contrast to the UK preference for fences and hedges surrounding to ensure privacy. Standing either in front or behind the thing, you can pretty much see all the way in. There are, however, snipers patrolling nearby rooves in case you get any funny ideas.

* The NSA have a big sign on the highway that says "NSA - this way". I thought that they were more circumspect than that. But, I didn't follow it, so maybe it was a trick.

* Babies really do look like Winston Churchill

* Speaking for three hours starting at 6.30 in the evening is less exhausting than you would think, at least at the time. I had expected to feel remarkably tired by the end, but was actually quite awake. When I got home, I was happy to sleep for hours on end and do no work the next day.

* Getting minor fixes to teeth at the dentist is actually less painful than a regular checkup, since they give you anaesthetic for the work, whereas there is no relief from the scraping they do when checking for problems.

* It is possible to put twice as much work into a five minute presentation than for a three hour one.

* I am in the process of being bought by the French.

* Going to important meetings means that you don't actually get any work done since you spend a long time preparing and travelling, so you still feel tired and worn out as if you had. But you realize at the end that you've accomplished nothing useful in a couple of weeks, which is frustrating. It therefore seems a good idea to take some time off and restart on return.

* People who don't indicate when changing lanes really annoy me. Are there some places in the world where this activity is not illegal?

* Despite all these asterisks, I don't actually have anything much to say.